Last minute gift: pancake mix in a jar (with label!)

I was born and raised in the United States, but have been living in Italy for the past 15 years, where I started my own family. Having a bi-cultural family is really enriching because you get twice as many traditions for holidays, traditions, languages and… food!

While my American friends and family always say how lucky I am to live in a place where the food is so good, I often find myself missing and craving classic States-side dishes. Because tastes are different from country to country, not every type of American food is appreciated in Italy. (For example, every Thanksgiving my pumpkin pie is met with grimaces by everyone except my daughter.)

But one of the foods that tend to be universally loved are classic pancakes. People in Italy frequently ask me for my recipe, so I decided to turn what would have been a simple recipe-tutorial into a great last-minute gift tutorial! Because, if you’re anything like me, you probably have a few last minute gifts to wrangle up, right? And the people on your gift list probably like eating, right? So why not gift their tastebuds a few delicious breakfasts with homemade pancake mix in a jar?!

And because I know you probably have precious little time, I’ve even created “Instant Pancakes in a Jar” labels that you can download and print out either on regular cardstock or on adhesive labels! The labels give all the details your recipients need to cook their own pancakes with the mix you’ve prepared for them!

And guess what else? You can make this mix up to use yourself at home, too! It makes pancake prep so much faster on Sunday mornings when your kids are bugging you to cook some up!

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s start making our pancake mix in a jar!

Here’s what you need to create and package your pancake mix:

2 2/3 cups white flour

1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour (if you don’t have this, you can just use 4 cups of white flour)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

a 1-liter bottle or jar (I use Bormioli Quattro Stagioni jars* which are the typical ones used here in Italy. Otherwise you could simply wash out and reuse 1-liter bottles that any other products may have come in.)

This recipe makes 4 batches of about 12 pancakes each. The instruction label tells how much mix to use for each batch.

It couldn’t be any easier to make this! Here goes:

1. Mix together all the ingredients (flours, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl, sifting them if necessary.

2. Use a wide-mouthed funnel (mine came with my dish washer) or make a cone-funnel out of paper to fill the bottle with the well-mixed ingredients.

This mixture fits perfectly into a 1-liter jar, though you will have to bang it on the table or counter a few times to help the powder to settle and make enough room for all of it.

That jar looks pretty bare, though, so let’s pretty it up!

If you haven’t yet, download the label file from my free downloads page. It is two pages. I designed it so that you can print out the two pages on one piece of cardstock, front and back, so that when you cut the labels out, you’ll have both a front and back on each one. Just note that there can be small inconsistencies in how precisely the printer pulls the paper in, so I suggest cutting out with the instructions side facing you, and then trim off any small white bits remaining on the front. Otherwise you might cut off some of the instructions side. Doing this you end up with four hanging paper labels.

If you don’t want to risk the two sides not lining up properly, just print the pages off onto separate pieces of paper, cut them out, and glue them back to back.

If you want to stick the labels on to the bottle itself, print onto adhesive paper. I got mine printed in a copy shop on a shiny transparent adhesive paper, but you can use the regular white background variety, too. In this case you can print out just the first page for two sets of labels.

Cut the adhesive labels and stick one on each side of the bottle.

I also suggest adding a fabric topper to the bottle to make it look more festive. Trace around a large bowl or pot lid and cut it out with pinking shears* for nicer zig-zag edges (if you don’t have them, just use regular scissors).

Punch a hole in the corner of the card label, stick a bit of ribbon or cord through the hole and tie it around the top of the bottle with the fabric.

Or heck, why not use both types of labels? This is the look that I like the most!

(Here you can see the Italian version of the label which, if you’d like it, can be downloaded here.)

All the lucky recipient of this mix has to do is add 1 1/4 cups of this mixture to some egg, milk and oil (I prefer rice oil, but you can use whichever you want) as indicated in the instructions and cook them on a heated skillet. Flip them when bubbles start forming on top and are golden brown, then gobble them up with butter and maple syrup!

You can also jazz up your pancakes by adding all sorts of goodies to the batter, such as one mashed ripe banana, chocolate chips or blueberries. This is part of the reason why my family loves pancakes so much, that we can easily make all different variations and I have no problems making them every Sunday morning!

See, wasn’t that super quick and easy?! It’s also a pretty inexpensive gift that will appeal to your loved ones’ taste buds! Make some pancake mix in a jar for everyone on your gift list!

Trackbacks

[…] that nobody wants to eat. When I have just one mushy banana, I mash it into pancakes (find my pancake in a jar recipe here). When I have two mushy bananas, I make a double recipe of these two-ingredient pancakes (which are […]

Read more about…

Archives

Looking for something?

Grab a Button

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.